Pension payments

orchidmania

In a world where we pay by monthly standing order or direct debit the traditional 4 weekly pension payment is difficult to budget with. As all payments are now made by computers surely it would be possible to pay 12 equal payments on a set date each month helping to make budgeting easier and helping those without the means to cashflow when payments are on awkward weeks

Ayr_Rage

Pensions can also be paid weekly, so it's easy to program payment every 1 or 4.

If paid on set dates that would involve weekends which are not normal payment days for most organisations let alone DWP.

If you are paid every 4 weeks you get "ahead" of monthly outgoings so it should be easier to budget.

poseidon1

orchidmania said:

In a world where we pay by monthly standing order or direct debit the traditional 4 weekly pension payment is difficult to budget with. As all payments are now made by computers surely it would be possible to pay 12 equal payments on a set date each month helping to make budgeting easier and helping those without the means to cashflow when payments are on awkward weeks

You are evidently unaware that the state pension can be paid on a weekly basis ( always has been). Only problem is you have to be aware of this and specifically request DWP do so.

With state pension received  and accumulating weekly, should not be beyond the capability of most people to ensure funds are available to meet monthly outgoings.

etienneg

State pension is a weekly benefit. By default it is paid four weekly because that costs less to administer, but you can opt to have it paid weekly if you wish. Paying monthly would cause issues as the number of days in a month varies, and it would introduce rounding errors that would have to be dealt with somehow. Government computer systems are creaking anyway with the excessive complications in our laws, without introducing more complications. (Or would you rather the government reduced pensions so as to have the money to buy and pay to program a new system?)

Why not just budget for the four weekly amount to be treated as monthly, and then at some point each year you would receive an "unexpected" extra payment? Perhaps this would help you over time to save a little towards unexpected or unusually high bills? Trying to "budget" to exact amounts is never going to work anyway!

mebu60

I treat it as 12 payments with a bonus around Christmas.

The plus side is the income is always ahead of the outgoings, just don't use it elsewhere when the time gap gets larger! 

dunstonh

In a world where we pay by monthly standing order or direct debit the traditional 4 weekly pension payment is difficult to budget with.

There are still an awful lot of people who are paid four weekly.    

Also, four weekly is not difficult to budget with.
a) If you treat the payment as monthly, then one month in the year you get two payments.
b) if you still struggle, then use a number 2 bank account (or budget account as they used to be known as).  i.e. on one day in the month, you transfer the total of your fixed bills to the budget account and have all your direct debts come from that budget account.

Marcon

orchidmania said:

In a world where we pay by monthly standing order or direct debit the traditional 4 weekly pension payment is difficult to budget with. 

Why? Budgeting is a paper and planning exercise - and very easy in a world of spreadsheets.

orchidmania said:

As all payments are now made by computers surely it would be possible to pay 12 equal payments on a set date each month helping to make budgeting easier and helping those without the means to cashflow when payments are on awkward weeks

Except that's not how state pensions are calculated and not all months have the same number of days.

Albermarle

mebu60 said:

I treat it as 12 payments with a bonus around Christmas.

The plus side is the income is always ahead of the outgoings, just don't use it elsewhere when the time gap gets larger! 

Although each year the 'extra' payment appears in a different month, so after a few years it can pay for a short Summer holiday instead !

GibbsRule_No3.

Orchidmania, have you only just started or about to receive your SP?  I will admit in the run up to receiving mine, I thought it was annoying not getting it on the 1st of the month but now, nearly 5 years later, I have got used to it. I do have to keep extra in my current account though, just incase one of the other pensions goes in at a funny time, or a bill goes out quicker than it should. I like to know what I have left for the month, after the bills are paid in the first week of a new month.

luvchocolate

poseidon1 said:

orchidmania said:

In a world where we pay by monthly standing order or direct debit the traditional 4 weekly pension payment is difficult to budget with. As all payments are now made by computers surely it would be possible to pay 12 equal payments on a set date each month helping to make budgeting easier and helping those without the means to cashflow when payments are on awkward weeks

You are evidently unaware that the state pension can be paid on a weekly basis ( always has been). Only problem is you have to be aware of this and specifically request DWP do so.

With state pension received  and accumulating weekly, should not be beyond the capability of most people to ensure funds are available to meet monthly outgoings.

Also can be paid fortnightly...I have the weekly option 

p00hsticks

orchidmania said:

In a world where we pay by monthly standing order or direct debit the traditional 4 weekly pension payment is difficult to budget with. As all payments are now made by computers surely it would be possible to pay 12 equal payments on a set date each month helping to make budgeting easier and helping those without the means to cashflow when payments are on awkward weeks

It would be possible but incredibly costly for DWP to rewrite their Pensions software, which has always worked on the basis of a weekly (and now fortnightly or four-weekly) payment, to provide monthly payments. 

When you consider how easy it is these days for individuals who want a monthly payment to simply set up an additional bank account to receive the pension and then transfer a sum into their main account on a monthly basis , a rebuild would be using an extremely expensive sledgehammer to crack a nut .